Baikal, Day 4: Baikal-Bound
Having spent most of a day in Irkutsk, today we hopped on a маршрутка and made the hour-long journey down to Listvyanka on the western shore of Lake Baikal – the real reason for coming all this way.
Easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited
Weather-wise we have been really lucky so far and today the sun was shining once again. Despite this, when we got off the bus we instantly noticed a significant temperature drop compared to back in Irkutsk. Indeed, the ice on the lake itself has only just started to break up and is still covering most of the surface at the time of writing. To say that this place is stunningly beautiful and absolutely awe-inspiring would be an understatement but regrettably such a description is the best I can muster right now – perhaps I should simply let the photos do the talking for me.
Unbelievably clear waters
Our hostel is a rather charming set of wooden huts and even comes with a very friendly cat for no extra charge!
Eco-hostel
Here it really is enough to just walk around and take in this absolutely breathtaking landscape with photo-ops aplenty. This is also, however, the first really ‘touristy’ place we have encountered since coming to Russia – aside from Moscow, obviously. Although managing to avoid buying any of the usual tourist tat you might expect to find I did end up buying some Baikal tea.
As well as just wandering around the lake you can also venture onto it. Although the ice has now melted to the extent that it’s not possible to head more than about a meter or two onto it, there are options available – namely hovercrafts! This was rather enjoyable I thought.
Fortunately not full of eels!
More wandering along the shore (the water here is even clear than I had expected) and more photo-ops including finally getting a proper one of our Tyumen’s group led us back to the hostel for a relaxing evening in this absolutely fantastic setting.